Currently, graphical user interfaces present menu choices to a user using a combination of a menu bar and pull-down menus. An example of this technique is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,882 which discloses menu item selection in a personal computer system through the use of a mouse device. The display system has means for allowing a user to invoke a header block which performs the function of a menu bar, and to erase the header block from the screen when menu operations are not required. Multiple menu items can be selected during the same menu session by using a pair of mouse buttons to generate a sequence of selection commands.
The menu bar, first popularized by Xerox and Apple in the early 1980s is typically a horizontal row of choices across the top of the display screen or across the top of a particular window on the display. A pull-down menu appears below a menu bar choice when a user selects a choice. The menu bar choices are represented by words such as FILE, EDIT, VIEW, OPTIONS, HELP and so forth.
Several of these interfaces represent objects as icons and allow a user to perform actions on a particular object by dragging its associated icon via a mouse, or by selecting choices from the menu bar and pull-down menus. U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,136 discloses a multiprocessor system with a user interface in the form of metaphoric objects, called icons, with which the user can interact by changing the input focus to a designated object by visually pointing to it via the input means, which thereafter permits manipulation of the designated object or interaction with data input/output relative to the designated object.
However, these interfaces provide little direct correlation between dragging actions and actions accomplished via the menus. They are treated as two separate and independent mechanisms. Users can become confused about the relationships of actions performed via the menus and via the dragging of the icons.
Microsoft has attempted to address some of the user's requirements for user selection of menu commands by providing a separate line of button commands that are referred to as a toolbar. The toolbar is located under the menu bar. However, the graphical representations cannot be dragged or otherwise manipulated by a user with the same degree of freedom as an icon. Finally, the button commands cannot be incorporated into the menu bar by the user.
The prior art is void of direct correlation between the group of choices in a pull-down menu and an object. Current menu-bar interface actions which affect a particular object are typically spread across multiple pull-down menus, and other actions may apply to two or more objects. Thus, users can become confused concerning which object that may be affected by a particular choice.